Regional Day School Parents to Protest Cuts

The mother of a severely disabled child says the powers-that-be at has made a bad decision in reducing fulltime physical therapists at the school to parttime status.

In response, Cindy Fine has organized a group of about a dozen parents to protest the decision tonight during the meeting of the Educational Services Commission of Morris County, which oversees the Morris Township school. The protest is slated for 7:45 p.m. Wednesday at 520 Speedwell Ave., suite 200.

Fine said officials have stated a reduction in enrollment at the special education schools overseen by the ESC was the cause of the cutbacks.

"What doesn't sit with me is the physical therapists will continue to have no free time in their schedules," Fine said. "They have full dockets. It does not make sense that they woud have their hours reduced.

"We think hastening the depature of this particular staff, we think this is going to drastically reduce the quality of the program," she added.

The physical therapist Fine's child works with, the mother likened to "a superstar."

"We feel this one particular person has gone beyond the call of duty," Fine said of the therapist. "You're telling a superstar to leave. There has to be another way."